


dance with me (on this cold winter day)

by tangentiallly



Category: A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Genre: Don’t copy to another site, F/F, Fluff, other characters show up to help B with her plan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-18 19:42:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17587157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tangentiallly/pseuds/tangentiallly
Summary: Beatrice and R go on an ice-skating date.





	dance with me (on this cold winter day)

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i don't own asoue
> 
> please don't copy this story to another site

“So, is everyone clear on what their mission is?” Beatrice asked, looking at the checklist in her hand on more time. “Kit, you’ll invent a story about you dating Dewey and tell Frank about it, and he’ll, ideally, spent an hour questioning your intentions with his brother.  If not, find some other way to keep him from looking out the windows.  Larry, keep Ernest in the sauna.  Bertrand, keep Dewey busy by discussing poetry with him.  Any questions so far?”

Everyone started talking immediately.

“Yeah, why does my part involve some elaborate and unnecessary lie?”  Kit asked.

“Do you have any specific instructions about what I should do in the sauna?” Larry asked.

“Out of curiosity, would you still be taking her to ice-skate on the pond if you weren’t banned?” Bertrand asked.

“You still haven’t told me my role,” Gustav and Olivia said in unison.

“First of all, Kit, because it’s fun,” Beatrice said. “As for Larry, go wild! And Bertrand, you know full well that depends on if I’m banned from anywhere else. Now, Olivia would be in charge of running the hotel because the mangers are otherwise occupied.  A hotel is just like a large carnival, really.  And Gustav, you’ll be on the balcony, filming an artwork masterpiece.  This is going to be epic.”

 

* * *

 

In R’s personal opinion, the black dress Beatrice was wearing that was intended as a bat costume, even completed with fake wings, wasn’t the most suitable thing to wear for ice skating.  She wondered if she should tell Beatrice that, even though Beatrice never really take suggestions in regards to her outfits.  She wore whatever she like whenever she wanted.  Still, R debated with herself internally for a while – she wouldn’t want Beatrice to catch a cold in just a summer outfit, or fall down and causing her bare skin to directly touch the ice.  On the other hand, maybe it was too late to go back for a change of clothes anyway, so saying anything wouldn’t have helped.

“Come on,” Beatrice shouted enthusiastically. She grabbed R’s hand and started walking onto the frozen pond, passing the wooden sign that stated she was being banned from ice-skating here. R was wondered if she should’ve not worn gloves, like Beatrice hadn’t, because then she would be able to feel Beatrice’s hand directly now.

Speaking of Beatrice’s hands, R had been admiring the 10 bats painted with black nail polish onto each of Beatrice’s nail ever since Beatrice picked her up this morning. Every bat had a different pose. Beatrice’s must’ve spent a lot of time on this. She felt something weird stirring in her just thinking about how someone must’ve helped Beatrice with this in detail.  Did they hold her hand carefully and gently while they painted those bats?

R tried to think of something to say that wasn’t “who helped you painted those bats?” and the first thing that came up was “judging by the sign there I’m assuming Frank and Ernest didn’t know we’re here.”

Beatrice grinned, mischievous and delighted. “I created a whole diversion plan for this! It’s going to be fun.”

R was usually more of a rule follower in general, but she was starting to understand why it was so easy to people to be roped into Beatrice’s various schemes.  _How could they not when she grinned at you like that?_ R smiled back, feeling the excitement bubbling inside of her.  “Yeah, it will.”

 

* * *

 

They started out with the first few steps in a slower speed, but quickly sped up.  The wind blew past against them, and R could hear Beatrice’s laughter in the air.  She hadn’t skated for a while since coming to the city, but the distant memories of ice skating with her mother back in Winnipeg were coming back, flowing through every part of her body, and it felt natural.  The speed was exhilarating, just like Beatrice’s grip on her hand, both sending R to a different state of mind, a wild excitement mixed with slight nervousness and anticipation.

She glanced at those fake bat wings for a second, which made she admire Beatrice more – the way B just moved so fast and easily even when wearing those.

They circled the pond, and then traced the pattern of the VFD insignia under Beatrice’s suggestion.  “Are we sending a secret message?” R asked, amused at the choice of pattern they decided for their path.  In other times, she might be more alarmed, but not today.  She was enjoying this too much to think about that.

“Consider this like throwing a bottle with a letter inside,” Beatrice suggested. “Someone might get the message, or maybe nobody ever will.  Just like someone might see this if they’re watching the pond with their spyglasses in a tall building inside the city.”

“Have you ever done the letter in a bottle thing before?” R asked as she felt them going even a little faster.  The speed and the weird new pattern they’re tracing was forcing them to make all kinds of sudden sharp turns.  R enjoyed the sharp turns, if only because Beatrice often made a cute giggle at those turns.

“Only with stones on the Briny Beach.  I usually carve poems onto the stones – sometimes it takes several stones for one poem – and throw it out into the ocean. I’ll show you on the next date!”

They both stopped very suddenly for different reasons, not at any turns, just in the middle of a line.  R felt suddenly disoriented, and her brain started replaying everything that had happened from Beatrice suggesting they go ice-skating, searching for when exactly had Beatrice ever stated this was a date.  She was pretty sure Beatrice never explicitly said so.  Maybe there were certain hints – but R had thought those were just her own wishful thinking that this could be a date.

This _could be_ a date, she thought, feeling dizzy.

“If you’re interested, that is,” Beatrice said hurriedly, looking unusually flustered in contrast with her usual confidence.  Or maybe those colors on her cheeks were just due to the cold air combined with the speed they’d been going?  R couldn’t be sure.  “And if you don’t mind this being a date,” Beatrice added.

R blinked rapidly, feeling like a dream. “I would love that.  A second date.” She was slightly breathless, but that might just be because of the cold air and speed too. Maybe.

The edge of Beatrice’s lips was starting to pull up into a wide smile, and R loved everything from the shape of her mouth to the colors of it.  “It’s settled, then,” Beatrice said, devilish and delightful again. “Do you want to dance?  Maybe waltz?  We can send out another message to anyone potentially watching.”

“Absolutely,” R agreed, and remembered something. “Wait – let me take these gloves off.”  She immediately felt the coldness after taking off the gloves, but as they held onto each other’s hands, it barely seemed to matter. “And hey, I’ve been meaning to ask – do those bat wings actually fly?”

“Excellent question,” Beatrice winked, “you’re about to find out.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [tumblr](https://beatricebidelaire.tumblr.com)


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